The XM8 is a kind of assault rifle that is expensive, moderately powerful, highly accurate, fast-firing assault rifle with a low-average recoil and has a high rank requirement. The XM8 is effective at all ranges. The XM8's recoil pattern is fairly predictable, as consecutive shots tend to climb vertically. The XM8 (and XM8-Adv.) is also one of the few guns in the game that have a full wallbang (shoot through peneratrable barriers without any resistance). The only other weapons that feature this abilility is the G36K, the M14EBR (and its variants), the Barrett M82A1 (and its variants), and CheyTac M200 (without counting variants of other guns such as M4A1 Royal Dragon/Spring/Iron Beast). It's rival, the SCAR-Light is not as powerful as the XM8 but has an even tighter recoil, is less expensive and has a higher accuracy.

The RDS (Red Dot Sight) is equipped standard into the XM8. It is not as useful or efficient as it can be as it has been the centre of controversy with the SCAR-LIGHT. The actual Red Dot is obstructing, thicker and imprecise compared to M4A1-Custom RDS. Many times the actual red dot covers the target you are aiming at, making it hard to tell if the target is hit and making it hard to align the red dot middle to the target. It should be noted, in scoped mode, the automatic firing rate is reduced making recoil recovery sink down faster than normal. It should also be noted that the RDS does zoom,but it's barely noticeable. Often times when down the scope, and firing full auto, it seems that the recoil doesnt exist when it actually does have quite a bit of recoil, making you miss a lot of targets.

CF VN: The XM8 has unusable scope. An unique variant called XM8-Dot Sight, with the RDS functional, is available as a cash item in the Item shop. Many players complain about this because XM8 was a very good gun and spending cash for a scope was unfair.

CF PH: The XM8 Adv.'s scope is the same as the regular XM8 and can be obtained via winning Zombie Apocalypse(Challenge Mode) by getting 500 000 score.

As the XM8 is a prototype weapon designed off of the G36K, the entire weapons platform could be considered a variant of the G36K.

Although this feature is not demonstrated in CrossFire, the XM8 can be quickly modified into a light machinegun, Designated Marksman Rifle, and Carbine by swapping barrels, foregrips, and stocks.

In CF Indonesia, this weapon used to be a very popular rifle for Elimination Mode & Search & Destroy, until it was prohibited to be used on a regional tournament. Since then, this weapon (along with its variant) are rarely seen to be used by players in CF Indonesia.